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. let me help you Mr Steel."1) I'm plenty effective in my 5 small pulse laser locust vs the 4 medium, thought the 4 medium has a little bit better ability to peek, due to range, which keeps it safer from LRMs, but thats kinda the point of this thread, to quirk the Mechs that are not as viable as others, so there is balance between them, in this case they gave that Locust SPL quirks to encourage brawler type play with it, so why not give it a little survivability boost too, which is really the Locusts biggest weakness."
Locusts are litterally the most tin-can mech in MWO. they have least amount of armor and overall weight to play with. they are not brawlers in the sense of being able to distract a whole team like a FSR or spider can (couch broken hitboxes cough). they are "scouts" in the sense that they are best spotting the enemy from extreme ranges and then hiding behind their big buddies waiting for someone to get INTO a brawl with lets say your big atlas buddy THEN you dart out and distract THAT guy from your big buddy so he has the advantage. other then LRM boats with no backup weapons and the few mechs that suck worse then a locust a locust should never EVER be in any kind of 1v1 combat even against another locust. I dont care what "quirks" a locust has the only way ive ever been able to make them "work" and get better then a 2-1 K/D ratio is to be very very careful and not treat locusts like other lights.
"2) So i shouldn't help the team? Just snatch up kills, assuming of course my team can win without my assistance which isn't often the case."
Yes you should be helping the team, by spotting the main enemy forces and by NOT dying or gettin hurt before you can do your job. see when you run off or try to find some lone lrm boat/mech to 1v1 your actually hurting your team because they are depending on you to stick with them and provide the "squirrel" distraction that locusts are oh so amazing for (better then most lights if you use it right). your not going to flip any matches with the firepower that a locust brings, what you are gonna do is flip matches with tactics by preventing enemies from focusing on your bigger buddies. again play the squirrel, yes the enemy may see you, may shoot at you but if your doin it right they should never really get a clean shot on you and at best they are wasting time trying to hit you while your big ol ac40 buddy comes right up to them to say "hello". plus locusts are one of the few mechs that can consistantly get those 12 assists every match once you get the hang of it. ka-ching! gimme those cbills.
3) Warning are fine if the LRM boats are shooting from 700 meters out, but if they are closer, like they should be if they are firing on a light, its often too late when you hear it.
there are only 2 ranges when it comes to lights and lrm boats. 1 far enough that the rock standing 20m from you is like taking one step back and hes just wasting his ammo and 2 under 190m. I assure you if you are paying attention and training your battlefield awareness you will never be caught without enough time to dodge behind cover in anything doing 150kph+. again stop playing a locust like its a hit-box-lag-sheild broken as ##$ spider or firestarter. you do realize that if your going 170KPH and are even 300m away from an lrm boat and you RUN directly at him the moment he fires his missles you can get under min range before they hit you? negating all damage 100% of it. you do realize that there is almost NEVER a lack of a tall mech or almost any rock/building to run behind when your that fast and are sticking with the team? its not hard to avoid lrms in a locust its alot easier than lets say clan lights which once they are narced are as good as dead already. idk why your even trying to single out LRMS my streak mechs obliterate locusts in one salvo.
4) Again, its preventing a play style that I thought was suppose to be viable (Brawling), not that I get killed by them on a regular basis. It just keeps everyone pinned down, which to me is a waste of time/not fun.
you thought wrong sry. what you see on paper does not always translate into the game how you might think. regardless of quirks the locust will never be more then a tin can that a stiff breeze will knock over. It is the most fragile mech in the game and you think you should brawl with it? at best you should be taking 1-2 shots at someone and while you shoot that first shot you already know where your gonna be ducking behind some cover just to break his LOS with you and waste his time. the locust will never be an endurance brawler and will always have to depend on using its team-mates, cover, tactical awareness and ability to break an enemies LOS with its speed to survive it simply has no other choice it cant even really take a single gauss shot if it rolls a crit in the right spot.
"If they run for cover, that is keeping them from doing anything useful (if they are a brawling light) so its almost as good as killing them, as long as you keep up the suppressing fire. I would also suggest LRMing at closer range if you are having that much of an issue hitting them."
like others have said depending on the light when an lrm boat is shooting at one he is hoping for 1 of 2 things 1 the light simply ducks and hides for a bit keeping him away from you the lrm boat, 2 the light is stupid and meanders in an open field to get hammered into oblivion. knowing this you must adjust your tactics, when as a light you find that #@$#$ lrm boat that just seems to always get a lock on you to send missles then you are in the wrong spot and you need to break LOS. use that 170KPH to move TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MAP. no other mech then the locust and commando can really do this trick so nicely. even on huge maps like mordor or tourmoline a 170KPH light can get from one flank clean over to the other side of the man in a minute or less. use your mobility to your advantage and dont be persistant in trying to attack from a bad angle also hide being an atlas, awesome or some other amazing barn yard door mech they will block every single shot that comes your way because a locust only comes up to its knee.
"Assaults have their own issues with LRMs it is true, but it doesn't negate the possibility of quirking less effective Lights to increase their survivability if even by a small margin."
what your asking for is essentially "i like my mech so plx bless the mech i like and nerf the ones that hurt my mech" really this is why even at the begining peeps were saying "just another X weapon kills me i dont like it plx nerf weapon X"
LRMs are extremely underpowered because they are either feast or famine, IE they either work very well or not at all and there isnt much middle ground meaning that for dependability they are a bad choice past 1-2 mechs. but you dont want to many on your team because when you have 4+lrm mechs and the enemy has 5+ECMs and all brawlers, no one but the lrm boats brought a bap so they are just free cbills for the enemy. see what im saying? and no nother weapon then LRMS can be avoided so easily as with skill alone.
guass? bam it hits you no way to dodge once the sniper has a good lead on you
acs? (clans AC suck mostly but W/E) you see the enemy, he sees you, you try to flank BAM hits you with an ac20. or DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA PEW PEW those ultra 5's start tearing you apart no way to dodge other then fallin off a cliff or finding cover fast.
lasers? wether its by cuts of a million needles or a well aimed legshot by a MPL thunderbolt your takin some damage possibly fatal damage if they snuck up on you.
streaks? locked got LOS FIRE! wham that light just got 1 hit KO'd by my streak 36 mad dog. come at be bro i dare you. il #$#$# your day up with clan streaks
srms? have to aim them and in general arent so good agains lights but a single good shot and its lights out for almost any light if your packin a good SRM 30+
LRMS? really? pffft i still got a good 2 seconds before i even need to think about ducking into cover. man that lrm boat is shootin at me again i wonder how much ammo he will just waste into this hillside before he realizes im just #$#$ with him.
really people that complain about lrms need to L2P then start bugging PGI to fix lrms not nerf them. and by fix them i mean make them like other weapons in terms of dependablity not this feast/famine situation. even compared to streaks man. once you fire streaks as long as you fired with a lock and the enemy doesnt cut off the flight path with some cover they are going to hit even if you lost lock. lrms? freakin childsplay to avoid in comparison.
